A few reflections from my 7th End of the Road Festival in Dorset. Or Salisbury, if you want to make people afraid to shake your hand. Getting that campervan was our best ever investment, saving 43 hours queueing for showers and loos over the weekend. Though dragging your tent over the stony path to the… Continue reading MY END OF THE ROAD TAKEAWAYS
Month: September 2018
MORE PROPER PUB SEATING : KIRTLING SPECIAL
Another day without the new Beer Guide, another day of torment. This would never have happened under Mr Protz, who probably stitched the Guides together himself, such was his commitment to the cause. Back in April I warned Simon off the Red Lion in Kirtling, just deleted from the Guide for change of licensee and… Continue reading MORE PROPER PUB SEATING : KIRTLING SPECIAL
MARVELLOUS MILD BY THE MINSTER
You left me in Ely, leaving a second pint in a Greene King newbuild diner, the sort of pub that you can usually rely on. I headed back to the station past the Cathedral, needing to get the taste of sour beer out of my mouth. I gave Greene King a chance to make it… Continue reading MARVELLOUS MILD BY THE MINSTER
MISSED PENALTIES & A RETURNED OTTER IN THE ISLE OF ELY
By Saturday lunchtime I’d realised the postman wasn’t bringing my new Beer Guide, and as I’ve mentioned my nearest GBG18 tick was by now 210 minutes away in Wales. Sure, I could have finished Boak & Bailey’s 20th Century Pub, but I’d only been reading it for a year and you can’t rush a… Continue reading MISSED PENALTIES & A RETURNED OTTER IN THE ISLE OF ELY
BEERLESS IN LUTON
Firstly, the bad news. Still no new Good Beer Guide, coming up to two weeks after expected delivery. Counselling services in Paisley, York and Cambridge have been overwhelmed by demand. So no new ticks since I ended that mammoth day on the Dorset coast at micro pub number seven, but frankly I needed a… Continue reading BEERLESS IN LUTON
“SPEAK TO YOUR BEAR HANDLER”
“Hell, hell is for children” sang Pat Benatar, who’d clearly not seen what the residents of Boscombe have to live with. From the Firkin I walked down past the station to the coast (exciting evidence below). You pass one of every chain pub on the walk down Bath Road; passing, oh, zero Beer Guide… Continue reading “SPEAK TO YOUR BEAR HANDLER”
BIZARRE BOURNEMOUTH
Another dull walk through the northern suburbs of Bournemouth to another dull micro pub with dull folk talking about other dull micro pubs, then. Er, no. The Firkin Shed, tucked between station and Dean Court Nou, is a bit overkill (almost literally), a bit like the Post Office place in Warwick or the Fez or… Continue reading BIZARRE BOURNEMOUTH
TAKING THE DUFF BEER OFF
More short reads, as I type this on a phone, which is my excuse for the inevitable typo. I can’t even do OS extracts to titillate Russ at the moment. You left me in a Winton micro trying to work out the most exciting way to walk into Bournemouth proper. But how can you walk… Continue reading TAKING THE DUFF BEER OFF
DOGS & UNRULY BEARDS WELCOME
Still in the hitherto unexplored suburbs of Bournemouth, still bringing you one pub at a time as I wait for the laptop to be repaired. I hope all those Bass mirrors don’t count as porn. Loads of pubs in Bournemouth “proper”, a spectacular zero in the Beer Guide, as all the micros head to the… Continue reading DOGS & UNRULY BEARDS WELCOME
A LITTLE BIT OF WINTON THAT IS FOREVER VANCOUVER
The really exciting bit of Dorset Dawdle now. Winton. Even with AFC Bournemouth enjoying glamour ties against Burnley and Huddersfield, I bet few of you could place Winton on the Navigator. I took the scenic route from Branksome, following your actual Bourne as it evaded some of the dullest housing outside of Watford. The smell… Continue reading A LITTLE BIT OF WINTON THAT IS FOREVER VANCOUVER
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